The Finale
by MCalhen
Summary: Kiyotaka was a famed pianist, but one day he left the spotlight. Just a reflection of Kiyotaka's final concert. Warning: Spoilers from volume 14 of the manga.


Finally, I am getting around to writing something centralized around Kiyotaka's abandonment of the spotlight in his career as a pianist. I wanted to do a fic like this one for ages, but I wasn't sure how to approach it. Thanks to a friend on gaia for translating the details at my request.

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A prodigy, famous by the age of 10, had shed the old skin that restricted the classical music world with his originality and natural talent. With this young boy had come the hopes and dreams that classical music would once again touch the hearts of young people, across Japan; across the world. Now, 10 years later, that same boy was now a man, and performed on the stage in Germany. The audience sat in their seats, silent as they listened to the flawless performance that flowed with raw emotion even the recordings couldn't capture.

It was the final concert of the tour, but the audience had no idea that it would also be the final concert they would ever witness from Kiyotaka Narumi. For as they sat at the edge of their seats, the girls swooning over Kiyotaka's charming looks and the men thinking of their own musical aspirations with jealous admiration of the man on stage, there was something stirring. Underneath the fingertips of Kiyotaka Narumi flowed more emotion than he had ever had while performing.

Kiyotaka Narumi knew he would never grace the stage again; it was his desire not to linger in the music world any longer. The great burden of his expectations had finally reached him at the age of 20, and he was up to the challenge of confronting his future. Somewhere, in another part of the world, was a man he was meant to destroy.

On the side of the stage, tucked behind the curtain, lingered Kiyotaka's beaming mother. She was proud of her son. Most of all, she was proud of the pianist that he had become. There were expectations to meet on her part, but Kiyotaka had been meeting them his entire life, and even surpassed what his mother had wanted. Her dreams had nearly exploded the day of his first concert…and now they were about to be shattered.

As Kiyotaka wrapped up the show, ending with a wrenching and moody piece, the audience was held captive. Now that he had their full attention, and the show had come to a close, it was time to finalize his decisions for the future without regret. Of course he had no regrets. He was not leaving the piano he so loved – only the spotlight he had grown up in for several years as a prodigy to the music world.

When he turned to the audience, his face was completely unreadable. Not one person that could see close enough to look at his eyes could find any particular emotion lingering in them.

"This does not seem to be the place I ought to stay," Kiyotaka announced, and in one swift motion his left hand slammed down the piano cover with a violent bang that made the piano vibrate, causing a loud jolt as many keys drowned together horribly. Caught in between the piano cover and the keys was Kiyotaka's right hand, crunched on all four of his fingers and even his thumb. The audience didn't react at first, from shock, and Kiyotaka had not let out any noise or made any faces to show that he acknowledged the pain he had just caused himself.

Kiyotaka stood up from the bench and withdrew his hand, his fingers visibly twisted. The audience suddenly erupted in gasps and shouts, and a man rushed to Kiyotaka's side, trying to see his hand, but Kiyotaka simply started walking off the stage. As he turned to his mother, she stared wide-eyed in horror at her son. Everything they had worked hard for was gone.

Her son…he would never play the piano for an audience again. He would never play the piano the same way, even after his hand healed. He had broken the fingers to the bone. She had worked so hard to prevent her son from ever enduring what she had when she had lost her own ability to play years and years ago in an accident. She had even gone as far as to clone her son, so that she could keep her son's health top notch – she would do anything she had to do. And he had ended it all himself. She was so confused with anger and an ache in her heart that she completely lost all feelings in her legs and eventually that loss of voluntary movement spread upward, causing her to faint.

"He obviously must not care about the piano enough to pull a terrible stunt like that," people whispered.

"What a spoilt child! He did this for more attention!"

"I guess that's what happens when someone becomes famous at the age of 10. They just want more attention, and they can't get enough, so they go to extremes for more."

The audience would never know that Kiyotaka Narumi had not smashed his fingers to make himself more famous. He had not done it because he felt that the piano was a burden placed on him. He had done it so that he could eliminate Yaiba Mizushiro and free humanity from the Devil.


End file.
